The trench trembled.
Cold currents twisted along its walls, carrying the scent of blood and pulverized coral. Below the drifting debris, two figures circled, one cloaked in silver-blue light, the other cutting through the water like a falling blade.
Yan Shen and Kaelrin pressed deeper into the abyss, carving a path of ruin through the Southern Water Teeth warriors. Every strike cracked the silent dark. Every impact warped the ocean itself.
Ahead, the faint glow of the Abyssal Shrine Gate flickered.
Behind, the trench remembered their battle.
Far below, something stirred.
Pressure rolled upward like a wave hitting against stone. A shape ascended,broad shoulders, jagged dorsal fin, black coral armor glinting with sigils. In his hands, he carried a massive bone spear, carved from the spine of some ancient leviathan.
Its shaft hummed. Its jagged tip drank the light.
Varn, First Prince of the Southern Water Teeth, emerged from the trench's throat.
"Little cousin, the queen sends her regards" Varn's voice rumbled, the sound carrying like a submerged storm. "Swimming alone. How bold."
Kaelrin's face hardened. "Varn."
The shark-prince smiled without warmth, teeth serrated and perfect. "Did you really think we wouldn't catch the scent of your trail? You carry royalty in your marrow. We'd track you through the storms of the ninth sea."
Yan Shen stepped forward, floating in still water. "You'll track nothing past this point."
Varn turned toward him, nostrils flaring. "The surface insect."
A slow inhale. "Strange. Your body is so strong but you haven't even begun to access your Qi reserves ."
His white eyes narrowed. "show me how you dealt with Dazil."
Yan Shen shrugged. "He talked too much."
Varn's smile disappeared.
"Then drown."
Varn lunged first.
The bone spear tore through the water in a thrust so fast the sea warped around it. Yan Shen caught the weapon barehanded, fingers closing over the shaft. The impact detonated the water between them into a high-pressure shockwave that ripped trenches along the basalt walls.
Varn's eyes widened, not in fear, but in something darker.
Excitement.
He pulled his arm back, gills flaring. "Good. Again."
The water darkened around him.
His muscles swelled, scales shifting, expanding. Black coral armor cracked as his body ballooned with raw force, veins flaring like molten lines. His mid Core Formation aura surged to the very peak of the realm, the pressure enough to crush a late Body Forging cultivator outright.
Kaelrin's mind flared with alarm.
The Teeth Bloodburst Art…he's forcing his body to its limits.
Yan Shen felt the change and raised an eyebrow.
"Hm. Stronger than Qin Shuren… and at the same realm."
He tightened his grip on Varn's spear.
"if it was a month ago you would rival my body but now you are too slow."
Varn roared and swung.
Each strike sent spiral currents screaming through the dark. The spear carved splits in the water that looked like tearing silk. Yan Shen met these arcs with fists and elbows, each collision producing concussive rings of compressed water.
For a moment, just a moment, Varn's increased power let him match the rhythm of Yan Shen's movements.
But only for a moment.
Yan Shen stepped inside the next thrust, twisted, and slammed his knee upward.
The blow shattered the bone spear's rhythm, sending cracks skittering across its spine.
Varn snarled. "You think yourself above the deep?!"
Yan Shen's voice was steady.
"I think you should've trained harder."
He drove a punch into Varn's chest.
The force cratered the trench floor, sending shards of basalt tumbling in all directions. Varn's armored torso caved inward, bubbles erupting from his mouth as he sank several meters before stabilizing.
Even wounded, even surrounded by drifting rubble, his grin never left.
"You are stronger than rumours claimed," Varn hissed through broken teeth. "Good. Better prey gives sweeter marrow and i have a feeling yours would be the sweetest."
His pupils thinned to predatory slits.
He darted forward again.
For several heartbeats, the trench dissolved into pure chaos.
Varn forced his mutated body into movements beyond its natural limits. The sea cracked around his limbs. His bone spear became a blur of pale death. Every lunge sent shivers down the stone walls.
But Yan Shen was a storm.
He slipped through the water without resistance. His blows were compact detonations, short, brutal, direct. Every strike folded water into pressure spheres that burst outward like exploding stars.
Kaelrin could barely follow them.
They're both monsters… but Yan Shen seemed calmer than the sea around him.
The glow of the Abyssal Shrine Gate pulsed harder now, replying to Kaelrin's presence. Runes flickered to life, casting long streaks of cobalt light through the trench.
Kaelrin thrust his trident into another Teeth warrior, letting the blood drift upward.
"We're here!"
Yan Shen didn't turn. "Then move!"
More shadows surged upward,dozens more warriors pouring from lower sides of the trench. Their formation curved to cut Kaelrin off.
Yan Shen blurred.
When he reappeared, the formation was dispersed.
Some killed.
Some wounded
The formation Gone.
The water where they had been was empty, filled only with fine mist and flecks of bone.
Kaelrin swallowed once and sprinted, cutting through the glowing runes, pressing both palms to the carved stone.
The gate roared awake.
Light spiraled outward, wrapping around Kaelrin like chains of liquid sapphire. His blood answered. The runes seared brighter. The sea stilled.
Behind him...
"NO."
Varn surged upward in a frenzy, spear raised, eyes glowing with red hunger.
Yan Shen moved to intercept.
He grabbed the spear's shaft, twisted, and snapped it cleanly in half.
Varn's eyes went wide. "Impossible...!"
Yan Shen planted a hand on the prince's chest and shoved.
Varn hurtled backward, smashing into the trench wall so hard the coral shattered into dust.
Kaelrin looked back, lips parting. "Yan Shen...!"
"GO!" Yan Shen barked, voice pulsing through the sea.
"I'll hold the gate. Nobody touches you."
Kaelrin hesitated only a breath.
Then he pushed through the ring of blue light.
The gate sealed with a deep echo...
THOOM.
The glow died out, leaving Yan Shen alone in the trench with the First Prince.
Varn rose slowly from the rubble.
His chest caved inward. Armor shattered. Blood clouded the water around him.
But his smile… widened.
"Good," he whispered.
"So good. You force me to use it."
Yan Shen's head tilted slightly. "Use what?"
The trench darkened.
Varn's gills split wider. His spine arched. His scales receded into flesh that twisted and rippled like molten wax. Bone erupted along his arms and back, reshaping into serrated plates. His tail elongated, thickened, cracking the stone beneath.
His voice warped, deeper, layered with something ancient.
"The gift of our ancestors,the true form of the Teeth Royal Line."
His eyes burned brighter, no longer white but blood-red, shining like lanterns in the abyss.
"This is the power we use to hunt leviathans."
Yan Shen took a single step forward, the sea bending around him.
"Then come hunt."
Varn roared
and the abyss roared with him.